Assessment versions

Published (reviewed and quality assured)

No published assessments

Rationale

Justification for indicator selection

EU legislation on pollutant emissions from new motor vehicles has been in force since 1970 and relates to carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) (diesel-fuelled vehicles only). This indicator has been selected to follow the above policy issues by monitoring the proportion of the vehicle fleet complying with these emission standards.

Units

Vehicle category
split in technology classes is presented as a percentage of each technology
class for each vehicle category (e.g. the percentage of Euro 3 vehicles in the
total petrol passenger car fleet).

Policy context and targets

Context description

Standards requiring the use of catalytic converters on petrol cars first came into force in 1993 with Euro 1 (Directive 91/441/EEC) and were replaced by Directive 94/12/EC introducing the Euro 2 standards in 1997. Emission limits for light commercial vehicles, being subject to less stringent standards than passenger cars, were aligned with these more stringent limit values by Directive 93/59/EEC and Directive 96/69/EC. Directive 98/69/EC introduced Euro 3 standards for passenger cars (in 2001) and light commercial vehicles (in 2002). By means of the same directive, Euro 4 standards (which came into force in 2005 for new type approvals) were defined. With regulation No 715/2007, the European Union has recently introduced stricter limits, particularly for emissions of NOx and PM. Euro 5 and Euro 6 standards will come into force in September 2009 and in September 2014 respectively. For heavy-duty vehicles, the first standards came into force in 1990 with Euro 0 (Directive 88/77/EEC, as amended by Commission Directive 2001/27/EC), which was replaced by Euro I and Euro II in 1993 and 1996, respectively (Directive 91/542/EEC). More stringent emission standards, Euro III, IV and V for 2001, 2006 and 2009 were adopted by Directive 1999/96/EC. This so-called 'Heavy-duty Directive' describes the adoption of additional measures (taking effect from 2005/6), including provisions relating to the development of on-board diagnostic (OBD) and on-board measurement (OBM) systems to monitor in-service exhaust emissions, durability requirements and in-service control, and limits for non-regulated pollutants that may become important as a result of the widespread introduction of new alternative fuels. Current emission limits for motorcycles and mopeds are defined in Directive 2002/51/EC, amending Directive 97/24/EC. The directive and its amendment determine a set of emission limits (both for 2-stroke and 4-stroke motorcycles) for CO, HC and NOx to be applied to motorcycles from 2003 onwards. A further tightening of the emission limits is foreseen, extending Euro 4 standards from 2016. The introduction of 'in-use' checks to prevent high emissions caused by bikers 'tinkering' with engines is also foreseen.

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Targets

Policy objectives are set with respect to the emission standards of new vehicles, as explained above. However, no target exists specifying or determining the fraction of the vehicle fleet that should meet these standards. Targets have been set in the urban context, as the 2011 White Paper on Transport states that major urban centres are to achieve essentially CO2-free city logistics by 2030 and that conventionally fuelled cars in cities are to be completely phased out by 2050.

Related policy documents

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 692/2008 of 18 July 2008 implementing and amending Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council on type-approval of motor vehicles with respect to emissions from light passenger and commercial vehicles (Euro 5 and Euro 6) and on access to vehicle repair and maintenance information

on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating
to measures to be taken against the emission of gaseous and particulate
pollutants from compression ignition engines for use in vehicles, and
the emission of gaseous pollutants from positive ignition engines
fuelled with natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas for use in vehicles
and amending Council Directive 88/77/EEC

DIRECTIVE 2002/51/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 19 July 2002 on the reduction of the level of pollutant emissions from two- and three-wheel motor vehicles and amending Directive 97/24/EC

REGULATION (EC) No 595/2009 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 June 2009 on type-approval of motor vehicles and engines with respect to emissions from heavy duty vehicles (Euro VI) and on access to vehicle repair and maintenance information and amending Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 and Directive 2007/46/EC and repealing Directives 80/1269/EEC, 2005/55/EC and 2005/78/EC

REGULATION (EC) No 715/2007 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 June 2007 on type approval of motor vehicles with respect to emissions from light passenger and commercial vehicles (Euro 5 and Euro 6) and on access to vehicle repair and maintenance information

Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area - Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

The shares of the various technology classes are calculated by dividing the population of conventional, open loop, Euro 1, Euro 2, Euro 3 and Euro 4 vehicles by the total fleet of each vehicle category (petrol and diesel passenger cars and light duty vehicles, heavy duty vehicles, buses, coaches, mopeds and motorcycles).

Methodology for gap filling

Since the number of vehicles, as well as their activity levels (number of kilometres driven per year) included in the various technology classes is modelled, no gap-filling is necessary.

Methodology references

No methodology references available.

Data specifications

EEA data references

No datasets have been specified here.

External data references

Data sources in latest figures

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

No uncertainty has been specified

Data sets uncertainty

The shares of the various technology classes and their activity in TREMOVE are based on both statistical data as well as estimations, especially for the new Member States. In principle, the data sets may be considered as reliable, as there is a good agreement with official published data (e.g. Eurostat).

Rationale uncertainty

No uncertainty has been specified

Further work

Short term work

Work specified here requires to be completed within 1 year from now.

Long term work

Work specified here will require more than 1 year (from now) to be completed.